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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Portable Card-Making Box

Do you have a lot of left-over paper from scrap booking? If so, then you're probably aware how easily they can be turned into greeting cards, but do you take the time to do so?

I love to scrap book and end up with TONS of small scraps of paper which I try to use up doing my scrap booking. However, I still end up with a lot of scraps and after doing a page or two or three with the same papers, I get tired of trying to incorporate my left-overs. Instead I do a quick sort (patterned scraps vs solid-colored scraps), and then stick them into baggies and throw them into my portable card-making box.

Ikea Box

I found my box at IKEA (love them!). My card-making box is is big enough to hold a large selection of small paper scraps, a good selection of card made from card stock or scrap booking paper, some scrap booking tools (like scissors, glue, pens), and a bunch of accessories (including: some white silk flowers which I can color with chalks or ink pens, chalks, a few stickers - mostly with pre-printed sentiments on them like "Happy Birthday" or "Thank-You", and a variety of ribbons). I keep everything in clear baggies which not only helps keep things organized and clean, but also makes it easy to find the item I am looking for. Right now I actually have too many things stuffed into the box and will either have to do some careful editing or I'll have to find a bigger box.

Baggie of tools

Baggie of ribbons

My over-full box of card-making supplies

I love having all of my supplies together in once place! It normally resides in my craft area downstairs, but I often pull it out and take it upstairs so I can work on cards while watching TV. I have even taken it with me in my car to make a few cards while waiting for my daughter to get out of a class or day camp.

I also cannibalize cards I've received from other people. Anything that isn't specifically personalized, labeled, or written on, I try and save for reusing on my own cards (which I use for friends and family, but don't sell right now)

These are a few of the cards I quickly threw together this evening. I already had the various cards cut to the size I wanted and folded into cards. I found attractive, patterned card stock that looked nice with the cards, added a few embellishments (like Happy Birthday stickers, silk flowers, and ribbons) and within just a few minutes, I had made 5 cards. If I have time tomorrow, I'll add a bit of bling by adding some glitter glue.

Birthday Card

Birthday Card

Thank-You Card

The best part about using scrap booking left-overs, is that many of my scraps coordinate with each other - which makes putting together a cohesive look even easier!

Yet another Birthday Card

Sympathy Card

Another benefit to using your scraps in this way - is that you get to try out paper combinations or new techniques that you might not have done on a larger scrapbook page. It's a great way to refine your techniques before you apply them to your precious pictures and scrapbook pages!